anyone heading to Tsinghua fall 2009?

[minski]

Hi, I am going to Tsinghua as well.But I still have some problems with the dormitory application

[Su-ey21]

Hello!

I am heading to Tsinghua this fall too. I used to take Chinese lessons but i have pretty much forgotten everything...so i should be around beginners level too!

With regards to the dormitory application i think we will only receive a response from the 18th of August onwards according to the instruction pack they sent. I applied for one of the AB rooms too though in the beginning i was looking to stay off-campus but a couple of friends told me that apparently the dorms aren't that bad (though not the best rooms in the world) and it's the fastest way to meet people

Is anyone looking to get a bike there? The campus looks enormous!

[caffeineaddict]

Hi guys, join the club!

Minski, what problems are you having with your application?

Su-ey21 hey, yea I'm also planning to get a bike! probably the oldest looking one I can get my hands on so hopefully it wouldn't be stolen. I posted some photos of the AB rooms on the first page you can take a look. They look nicer than my old dorms in the UK and I can't believe they actually give you a TV.

[Su-ey21]

Checked out the pictures. They look alright i guess it's just the tiles that put me off! How are we going to walk around in winter!? I hope the rooms come with really good heating.

I heard that we should be able to get a very very basic bike from the Wudaokou area for about RMB120 which is a pretty decent price but apparently it gets too cold to ride around in winter and i don't think anyone would want to steal a RMB120 bike would they? Maybe in London they steal all kinds of bikes but not in China! I hope!

[minski]

Well,as a wrote to the guy responsible for that,the site is not accepting my ID and date.I am waiting for reply.So you are saying there aren't any single room.

[caffeineaddict]

Su-ey21,

basically all Chinese people wear slippers indoors anyways. I guess they made it tiles so it's easier for the cleaners to clean. That's another point, I can't believe we get people to clean our rooms (another thing I don't have in the UK). Frankly I'm not used to the idea of someone paid to clean up after me...I'd feel bad.

People ride on bikes during all the seasons I think. Though it does get very very cold in the winter. Basically last year I was wearing this huge fleecy coat thing down to my knees, walking the dog, and freezing my butt off. It's often the wind that's the most annoying because it just cuts right through. (But I have also never lived in really cold places like Siberia so I guess it's not THAT bad, but bad enough for me!)

I'm pretty sure with all the bikes in tsinghua (check out the youtube videos) as long as you park it in a big area and your bike isn't amazingly shiny new looking you'll be fine. But unfortunately, people DO steal all kinds of bikes, including crap ones.

ps I was actually born in Beijing and still have family there so this is based on my observations.

[caffeineaddict]

Well,as a wrote to the guy responsible for that,the site is not accepting my ID and date.I am waiting for reply.So you are saying there aren't any single room.

Minski,

I just logged onto the website and it says there are no more single or AB rooms left. Only rooms left are double.

[marco-polo]

Hi Minski - I have also been unable to log into the web site to submit an application. I think this may have something to do with being a CSC scholarship recipient (from Europe).

[mrjackalope]

Glad to know there are others here (I'm a lurker not a poster) enrolled, I'll be going to the full year program as well. I'm a 22 y/o from South Carolina, though I just finished undergrad in central New York. I have a degree in Chinese so I'm hoping for the upper-intermediate/advanced levels from the placement exam, though we'll have to see (who knows how a US undergrad will compare to the Korean/Japanese students enrolling). I've also done a semester before at Beida a few years ago, so I sort of know the area we'll be living in. Advice on the people talking about winter: bring a good coat, Beijing can be very, very cold in the winter. And blisteringly hot in the summers.

A few questions, just to see if anyone's figured out more than I have:

1. Does anyone know the end date for the second semester? I'm trying to book flights right now, and I'm afraid of either over- or undershooting the date. The FSAO hasn't answered my emails yet so I figured I should shoot it out here.

2. Anyone else doing the private accommodation search? I wasn't really down with the curfew's or amenities in the Tsinghua dorms so I've already begun my hunt. I'd love to trade info if possible.

Edited August 12, 2009 at 06:07 AM by roddy

[susie10216]

Hey,

The online reservation system is so weird, now it's saying that there are no AB room/Single/double rooms. Hopefully I would get something when it's time to confirm reservations. The hassle of finding private accomodation does not appeal to me

Caffeinaddict:

I just finished studying in London and the Mandarin course in Beijing is part of my mini gap year before starting work. Goodluck with your dissertation! I have never done one myself but I know that it takes a lot of work to complete one!

Susie

[minski]

Hi, I don't know there is no response from the e-mail they gave for online problems.But yes I have a full scholarship and in the acceptance letter it's written that this include accommodation but maybe it does not.) So the tent is a good opportunity ))

[caffeineaddict]

there's a curfew in the dorms?? Do you know when it is? How strictly is it enforced?

susie10216,

that's so cool! I guess this counts as my gap year as well. Where in London do you study? I'm at the LSE.

[mrjackalope]

I may have mixed up curfew requirements with another university's dorms when I made that statement; I know Peking U had them a few years ago, though, at 11:30pm on weekdays.

I also got a response from the FSAO at Tsinghua today about second semester end-dates: approximately July 4th. I don't know what the approximately means exactly, but that's what they told me.

[roddy]

I don't know about Tsinghua specifically, but usually it's a case of the doors getting locked at 11 or 12, but there's a guard / doorwatcher asleep in an adjacent room to let you in if you come back later. So it's inconvenient, and you might not be the guard's favourite person by the end of the semester, but you don't have to spend the night on the streets.

[barron009]

Regarding the curfew, I recall reading on thutraining.com that there is a curfew for guests. It said that all guests must leave the dorms by 10PM, including those who live in neighboring buildings.

I don't remember if it said anything about curfews for people living in each building. Hopefully they are not too strict about staying out late. Locking the doors at midnight seems reasonable as long as there is a doorman.

Anyone else having trouble getting back on thutraining.com? The website no longer even loads.

[Su-ey21]

Susie and caffeineaddict what a small world... i just graduated from London too this year!

With regards to the curfew... as far as i have heard from my friends who went to Tsinghua the last few years they didn't mention anything about it and as far as i know they go clubbing till the wee hours and still manage to get into their dorms! So i don't think that there should be any problem.

barron009 & susie10216 - i can log into the website and it says that there aren't any Single rooms or Double rooms but there still are AB rooms??

[naturegirl]

Hey guys,

glad to see so many new faces coming to tsinghua. I've already been here a whole year but I'm doing a whole degree here, so I can tell you a bit about the dormitories and stuff

There aren't any curfews, you can come back at 4 in the morning if you feel like. However visitors are required to sign in at the front desk and can usually only stay till 11 pm (but often you are lucky and they forget about it)

Some of my european friends got an apartment outside, but it became rather crappy, so in the beginning I'd recommend you to stay on Campus first and get to know everything, then you can decide.

There was another mistake, the Internet is not included, we have network cables, but they cost 90RMB/ month if I'm not mistaken. Moreover there are a lot of coffees around wudaokou with free wireless internet. (A special advice would be the fantastic Bridge Coffee that a lot of westerners love to go to!)

Otherwise, you have a lot of things on campus, cafeterias (however they close after 1 a.m. for lunch, I had to get quite used to that!), supermarkets (in the basement of the C building). If you need a bike you can either rent one or campus or buy one. I bought mine in front the east gate (main gate) It should cost around 200 RMB with lockers.

Hm, what else... yeah, Room Registration is in Building No. 19, Foreign Student Office is Building No. 22, Building No. 23 is the only one with double rooms (I'm in there^^) and it's right next to the north-east gate.

If you have any questions just ask, and I hope to see you guys around! Tell me when you have any meetings!

[caffeineaddict]

So anybody interested in a Chinese-forums meetup??

Susie and caffeineaddict what a small world... i just graduated from London too this year!

haha awesome! London is brilliant I'm sad to be leaving!

Anyone else having trouble getting back on thutraining.com? The website no longer even loads.

It's working for me, I logged on about 2 min ago.

Naturegirl,

thanks so much for posting. Wow I didn't know that about the internet. How fast is it? Also is there a place to buy fresh vegetables and fruits near the dorms? What are the dorms like in terms of socializing? Are there common rooms etc?

Also have you joined any clubs or societies and what are they like??

Hope that isn't too many questions, thanks for helping out.

[barron009]

Wow, so many Londoners! London is one of my favorite cities in the world, I could certainly see myself living there.

I was able to login into thutraining.com and to my dismay it said there are no Singles or AB rooms left. I'm going to hold off on changing anything until the actual results are released, perhaps it is a glitch.

Naturegirl, thanks for the informative post. When you say the internet is not included, do you mean that they charge to rent ethernet cables? Sounds like if I bring my own cable I won't have to pay anything.

A chinese-forums meet up sounds great, I'll be arriving in Beijing the 14th of September. We should all get a bite together. When's everybody flying in?

[naturegirl]

The internet is one of the fastest in Beijing, but keep in mind that many things are blocked (youtube, facebook, twitter, just to name a few.....) and some proxies don't work on the campus network.

I was a bit unclear with network cable, I mean that there is wired internet connection in the dorm. The internet acess is measured in whether you only want to access chinese websites, which will be very cheap, but not very helpful, and amount of traffic. You're best advised to use the most expensive one, which is flatrate for international sites.

The dorms are quite small (on the pics on tsinghua FSAO website they look bigger) but that's normal in China. I personally like double rooms most, usually you'll get a roommate from another country, and I like having a roommate, you can lock everything up so it's quite safe and I haven't heard of stealing from roommates. Usually stealing occurs in the kitchen or laundry room, where you hang clothes to dry, but hardly in double rooms. So if you don't have too high demands in terms of privacy I'd recommend double rooms, it's also the easiest to socialize, really!

Oh I forgot to tell about warm water hours, (don't be too shocked now, hehe ;-) They are 7-9 a.m., 3-5p.m. and 8p.m.-midnight. It takes some getting used to, and some ppl move out to have warm water all the time.

There are also washing mashines, I believe on every floor, and you buy the chip for it at the front desk. Chinese washing mashines only wash with cold water and ours is quite agressive (read it destroyed my tank top), so I prefer washing small stuff by hand.

There are common rooms on every floor, you usually go to the front desk and let them open it. Most of them are study rooms, some have couches and some have round tables. They also have internet access. But they are not really helpful for socializing, I'd say. In general you will notice that students tend to stick with their own country's friend and that Asians are maybe more closed up, but once you get to know them they are very friendly.

For the dorms there is also room service everyday so that is quite comfortable ;)

Fruits can be bought on campus in the supermarket. For bigger supermarkets there are some at the wudaokou area. I can show you all once we're here.

How about for the meet up, once you arrive you PN me your cell phone number and when everyone's there we'll meet! I'm having a summer term starting next week so I'll be quite busy during the day but evening should be fine!

Looking forward